Your Right to Know: Highlights of Daily Press investigative efforts in 2011

A detailed investigation of more than 500 employee credit cards issued by the city of Newport News.

A look at how workers were exposed to asbestos — a cancer-causing material — at Dominion's nuclear power plant in Surry.

A story about how a judge and prosecutor handled a charge of refusal to take a breath test against a Williamsburg attorney they knew well.

Then there was the examination into how children with autism from several grade levels were packed into a single classroom in Hampton's public schools. And the article delving into problems at Harbor Square, an apartment complex that the city of Hampton has decided to buy and raze.

With a primary role of journalism to serve as a watchdog on government and business power, the Daily Press has had several stories over the past year that have dug deep and held public officials to account.

Aside from the stories that made the top five, there are several others that could have easily made the list.

There was, for example, the question over whether the city made a wise decision when it purchased land for a development that will include Newport News Shipbuilding's Apprentice School, as well as apartments and retail shops.

The city is buying the property for $4.5 million — nearly four times the assessed value of $1.2 million.

Over the past year, the Daily Press examined several businesses. That included, among others, the Showcase Select Imports, a local car dealer.

Dozens of customers who purchased cars from the Jefferson Avenue car dealer told the Daily Press they are either missing car titles, owed money or do not have possession of the vehicles they purchased. The dealership then closed.

Federal law enforcement officials, as well as the state's Department of Motor Vehicles, are investigating claims that Showcase sold vehicles without titles, failed to deliver titles for vehicles sold and failed to pay off liens on trade-ins.

It didn't help that the city loaned Showcase and its owner, Virgil Williams Jr., $175,000, in 2008 to help the company expand to a new location.

It's questionable that the city will ever get that money back.

Also over the past year, the Daily Press examined many issues pertaining to criminal justice.

Aside from the issue over whether a judge and prosecutor failed to recuse themselves in the Williamsburg case, there was also the close look at whether the life of a death row inmate, Jerry Jackson, should be spared because of severe abuse he suffered as a child.

In the case of a quadruple homicide in Newport News, the Daily Press learned that a protective order filed by a woman against her husband was never served on him before she was killed.

By the time a Newport News Sheriff's deputy showed up to serve the order on John Ragin the day after the order was issued, Crystal Ragin and her three children were already dead. As a result of the problem, the Sheriff's Office said it would change its system to ensure that protective orders are served more quickly going forward.

Also on that case, the Daily Press could find no records to indicate that the prosecutor on the case in Newport News ever told local judges that Ragin had been convicted of manslaughter in South Carolina. If they had been told, Ragin might have gotten a stricter sentence in an assault case.

It's been a year of turmoil for the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Office, which revolved around an 18-month Virginia State Police probe into how department volunteer Jonathan Burns — a convicted felon — gained access to a stun gun.

Burns was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Capt. Paul Phelps, the agency's chief investigator and son of Sheriff Charles Phelps, was charged with felony conspiracy. Earlier this month, the court dismissed the charge against Burns. Phelps pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor conspiracy charge and agreed never again to work in law enforcement.

In November, voters ousted Charles Phelps, who was running for a seventh term.

On the credit card story, which tops our list of investigations this year, the city of Newport News says it did nothing wrong. Indeed, it says it made no changes as a result of the Daily Press investigation.

Still, there's little doubt that knowing the newspaper will examine such records provides a good check against future misdeeds.